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- Hi and welcome to The Victorian Cosmetic Institute.
I'm Dr. Terri Labberton and I want
to have a chat to you today about tattoo removal.
A large part of the work that we do here
is involved in tattoo removal.
With tattoos, the ink is put in,
into the deeper layers of the skin.
And it's a large particle of ink,
so the body's immune system can't actually
clean it away and that's what gives
the tattoo its permanence.
With laser tattoo removal what we're doing
is we're using laser energy, of different wavelengths,
which is particularly attractive
to the ink particles, the pigment of the ink
and it is going through the skin
and it's going directly to those particles
of the ink and actually exploding them.
Then that's making the ink into smaller particles
which the body's immune system
can actually come in and clean up and take away.
Now this whole process actually
can take many many treatments.
The ink does not all just disappear
with the first treatment.
What can determine how long it takes
to actually remove a tattoo depends on many many factors.
First of all, the color of the ink
that's involved in the tattoo.
Black is usually the easiest to remove.
But if there's other colors, we often need
to use different lasers to remove those inks.
So it can take many more treatments
if we're actually trying to get several
different colors within a tattoo.
The type of ink that's used, a lot of tattoos
that perhaps are done in the school yard
or amateur tattoos, the ink is not as stable
and that does seem to be removed quite easily with laser,
may only need a few treatments.
The depth of the tattoo, some tattoo artists
seem to put their ink a little bit deeper than others,
and depending on the level within the dermis,
that can determine how easily it's treated
or how many more treatments it might take.
The type of skin that the tattoo is on.
If somebody has very fair skin,
they don't have a lot of pigment in their skin,
so it's very easy to actually treat the tattoo
without causing damage to the skin,
and you can use fairly high energies
knowing that you're not going to cause
any problems with the pigmentation in their skin.
But if somebody has darker skin,
then it's actually harder for the laser
to treat the tattoo rather than the skin,
so we have to go a little bit slower,
use slightly lower energies and we'll probably
need more treatments.
The concentration of the ink within the tattoo,
if it's just an outline tattoo,
that's going to be more easily removed
than if it's a complete blackout of tattoo.
And the position on the body
is particularly important as well.
If the tattoo is centrally located,
such as on the head, neck, trunk of the body,
it usually will need less treatments.
But if the tattoo is perhaps on the ankle
and a fair way from the center of the body,
then it will usually take many more treatments
to actually get rid of that tattoo.
How many treatments in total is really
very dependent on the individual and the tattoo
and all of those factors that I have mentioned.
But it may take 10 treatments or more
to remove a tattoo.
So you really are looking at quite a commitment
when you decide that you want to remove a tattoo.
It is going to be a long ongoing process,
but we will definitely get there
and with the new technology and the great lasers
that we have the risk of scarring is minimal.
All right, so what we're going to do
is we're actually going to inject
some local anesthetic into Nicole's tattoo.
Nicole has actually already had some anesthetic cream
on the tattoo for over an hour.
So there is some numbness to the area of the tattoo.
But because the laser is going
to be going quite deep, we actually like to have
a little bit level of anesthetic.
So I'm actually going to inject some anesthetic as well.
Just a little sting.
Does that feel okay?
- [Nicole] Yeah, I could hardly feel it.
- Great, okay just checking down here.
Feeling sharp at all down there?
- No, nothing.
- [Dr. Labberton] Excellent, good.
With Nicole's tattoo it's a great example
of a multi-color tattoo.
Traditionally blacks have been much easier to treat.
Usually you just need one type of laser.
But the problems with multi-color tattoos,
because the laser of a certain wavelength
is attracted to a certain pigment,
you'd need to use different types of lasers
to treat different types of colors
and Nicole's has got black, yellow, lavender, green,
and a little bit of red.
So we're actually probably going to use
quite a few different lasers on Nicole's tattoo.
So because we're doing lasers,
we need to use goggles to protect our eyes.
Now just let me know if that's uncomfortable at all.
Just sitting your head forward.
That's the way, does that feel okay?
You're all right there.
I'm coming in just using a low energy
of the ruby over those areas where
we know the green ink is.
Okay, now again you'll feel just
a little kind of a pressure feel,
but it shouldn't be painful or uncomfortable.
Okay, I'll count you in one, two, three.
Very low.
Feeling okay there?
- [Nicole] Yeah, fine.
- [Dr. Labberton] Great.
At red.
Okay, and again coming in with another laser.
This one's a five, three, two.
It's attracted more to the red parts.
In we go, one, two, three.
Okay, there we go.
Then a 1064.
So you're gonna hear a bit of a snapping noise
and you might feel just a little bit of pressure,
but it shouldn't be painful or uncomfortable.
Just starting now.
I'll count you in, one, two, three.
That's great, feeling okay?
- [Nicole] Yeah, fine.
- [Dr. Labberton] Now the reason why
the tattoo has come up white like that
is because when the energy goes into the ink
it explodes, and it's kind of like oxygen being released
and it brings bubbles up to the surface of the skin.
So that's why it comes over white.
That doesn't stay like that.
A lot of people look at these and go wow that's amazing.
But in a few minutes, of the next sort of 10 minutes
or so, that actually fades down
and just has a general sort of inflamed appearance to it.
- That looks much better already.
- Now we've actually done the laser part of it,
we're going to actually put a dressing on it.
Just putting a little bit of antibiotic ointment on.
Dressing
We've got like a plastic skin dressing over there
which is waterproof and you should
be able to leave that on for the next few days.
So how did you find the experience
of having the tattoo removed?
- I did think it was going to be more painful.
I felt the first needle and that was all.
- Great, good
- Very good.
- The next treatment we would do no sooner
than six weeks.
We need to allow the body to do a little bit
of the cleaning up and really to heal that area there
and then we can actually treat again.
So if you've got a tattoo that it's time
for you to get rid of it, come in and see us.
We have got all the different lasers for treating
all the different colors and we'll make it
a pleasant and painless procedure for you.
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